Events » Past Events » Special Events » 2001: The Frontiers of Medicine: Human Genome - Human Being
2001: The Frontiers of Medicine: Human Genome - Human Being
Past Events - 2001 - The May Dialogue
The Frontiers of Medicine
Human Genome - Human Being
The future of medicine and health care can be seen through two principal lenses, which may or may not result on what many call 'Integrated Medicine'. The first lens is scientifically based on spectacular advances in molecular genetics; its strongest proponents are inclined to paint a reductionist picture of the human being as the product of a DNA programme interacting with environmental influences. The other lens, more consistent with the world's spiritual traditions, is a holistic one from complementary and alternative medicine (CAM.). Many CAM practitioners recognise the creative role of the mind and see the human being in terms of subtle anatomy and subtle energy, following ancient models from India and China. This meeting explores models of the human being arising from medical genetics and CAM, asking if they might lead to an integrated understanding of the human being that does justice to all levels of analysis and types of human experience. We will also consider the philosophical and ethical implications arising from these models.
This meeting is the outcome of a collaboration initiated at the State of the World Forum and Future Visions meetings - the latter sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation and the International Space Sciences Organisation - in New York in September 2000. At that meeting the Global Academy sponsored a number of stakeholder dialogues on the spiritual, medical and social implications of the human genome project. Our distinguished speakers are drawn from the four fields of biology, medical genetics, complementary medicine and theology/ethics. Half of them are flying over especially from the USA to take part in the meeting and contributed to the very stimulating and comprehensive dialogues in New York. We look forward to your participation in the dialogue.
PROGRAMME
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CONFERENCE ORGANISERS
THE SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL NETWORK
The Scientific and Medical Network is an informal international group consisting mainly of qualified scientists and doctors, together with psychologists, engineers, philosophers, therapists and many other professionals. The aim of the Network is to deepen understanding in science, medicine and education by fostering both rational analysis and intuitive insights. The Network was founded in 1973 and currently has more than 2,000 Members in over 50 countries. It questions the assumptions of contemporary scientific and medical thinking, so often limited by exclusively materialistic reasoning.
Scientific and Medical Network, Lake House, Ockley, Nr. Dorking, Surrey RH5 5NS Tel: 01306 710072. Web: www.scimednet.org
THE GLOBAL ACADEMY
The Global Academy is dedicated to building open) sustained dialogue as a vehicle to create truly humane societies that are economically successful, environmentally sound) technologically and socially responsible. Established under the auspices and support of The Link Foundation by an international group of authors, scientists, business leaders, social forecasters and government leaders, the Academy convenes public forums throughout the Americas and Europe bringing together influential leaders from all sectors of society to dialogue about compelling issues of our time. The Link Foundation is incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation set up for exclusively charitable and educational purposes, www.thelinkfoundation.org
ACADEMY FOR FUTURE SCIENCE
The Academy for Future Science is an international non-profit organisation operating in more than 12 countries since its inception in 1973. Its charter covers the areas of archaeology, anthropology, environment and remote sensing, computers and physics, as well as studies in consciousness and comparative religion. Its work has been represented at the Parliament of the World's Religions (1999),The Millennium Peace Summit ofWorld Religious Leaders (2000), and at many university conferences on the dialogue of science and religion. Its members have been responsible for the updating of the medical curriculum at universities in South Africa and the monitoring of critical environmental areas in Brazil.
CONFERENCE SPEAKERS
Professor Brian Goodwin, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the Open University and currently directs the MSc in Holistic Science at Schumacher College. He is author of How the Leopard Changed its Spots, which proposes an alternative to Neo-Darwinism based on the concept of organisms as self- organising, transforming wholes. He is a Vice- President of the Scientific and Medical Network.
Dr. William Huribut, MD is a physician and lecturer in the Program in Human Biology at Stanford University, teaching courses in biomedical ethics, including one entitled Adam 2000: Images of Human Life in Biomedical Technology. He completed post-doctoral studies in theology and medical ethics and works with the Center for International Security and Cooperation on a project formulating policy on chemical and biological warfare and with NASA on projects in astrobiology.
Dr. James J. Hurtak, PhD, PhD is President of the Academy for Future Science. He is a social scientist and futurist with two doctorates who studied at the Universities of California and Minnesota. His main concern is the interface between science, religion and the environment. He was a presenter at the recent Parliament of World Religions (1999) in Cape Town.
Dr. Joe Jacobs MD, MBA received his Medical degree from Yale University and his MBA from theWharton School of Business. He served as Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health. He has authored and/or contributed to eight books including, Cancer: Principles and Practice of Oncology; Medical Futility and the Evaluation of Life Sustaining Interventions and Community Oriented Primary Care: From Principles to Practice.
Dr. Kim Jobst, AID is a former consultant at Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital and is Visiting Professor of Complementary Medicine at Oxford Brookes University. He is Editor-in- Chief of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Rev. John Maxwell Kerr teaches chemistry, divinity and philosophy at Winchester College and lectures on the Oxford University Summer School about the implications of human genetics research. He is a former Lecturer in Chemical Engineering, University of Nottingham, Research Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Warden of the Society for Ordained Scientists.
Dr. Robert Lanza MD is Vice President of Medical and Scientific development at Advance Cell Technology Cell Technology. He has over 200 publications, including Principles of Tissue Engineering, Yearbook of Cell and Tissue Transplantation, One World: the Health and Survival of the Human Species in the 21st century and Xeno: The Promise of Transplanting Animal Organs into Humans. He has worked closely with Jonas Salk (the Salk Institute), Gerald Edelman (Rockefeller University) and Richard Hynes (Center for Cancer Research at MIT). He has co-authored a series of papers with Christian Barnard MD and BF Skinner PhD.
Dr. Pauline Rudd, PhD is a University Research Lecturer in the Glycobiology Institute of the University of Oxford, where she works in many different areas where glycoproteins play a significant role. She was recently on sabattical at the Scripps Research Institute in California and is a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Medical University. She is also an Associate of the Community of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxfordshire and has participated in many science and religion meetings.
REPORT
Max Payne, Sheffield, England
As usual the May Dialogues provided SMN members with a feast of new and provocative ideas. CHRIS CLARKE began by reminding the conference that the whole mechanistic view of science was up for question. BRIAN GOODWIN continued this theme. The naive linear causal approach of reductionist science had achieved marvellous results, but in certain areas of biology and medicine it had reached its limits. Cancer is not caused by a single gene, it is the result of the disorganisation of the whole complex interactive structure of the cell. Each cancer is therefore different even in the same organ of the same patient. The cell structure is altered by its own environment, and therefore the living individual can alter its own genetic inheritance. Experiments in GM crops are dangerous because they fail to recognise the complex interconnections within the cell. These issues should reawaken interest in a Goethean science which puts recognition of quality before measurement of quantity. Quality, too, can be made subject to rational consensus.
PAULINE RUDD gave a superbly clear lecture on the basics of Glyco-Biology. The active part of the DNA molecule is a protein, but around the protein complex sugars are attached . These sugars affect the activity of the protein in ways that are sometimes subtle, sometimes vital. The difference between two blood groups is only the position in space of one bond in one sugar molecule. The prion protein that causes B.S.E. exists in the brain in a benign form. The crumpled malignant form may be caused by which sugar molecule attaches to the protein. A difference in the oxygen level in a cell sometime determines which sugar attaches to the protein. Deep breathing might therefore even alter our genes! In this way the science of Glyco-Biology explodes the myth of a deterministic 'Selfish Gene' which makes us what we are. Even at a chemical level what we are is partly determined by ourselves. There is a chemical basis for some neo-Lamarckian evolutionary theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
WILLIAM HURLBUT demolished genetic determinism from another direction. Our knowledge is toxic. We know too much and too little at the same time. Identical twins are genetically identical. If one is schizophrenic there is a 50% chance the other will be. That is genetic determinism. The 50% chance that the other twin will not be schizophrenic is all the other forces that lift us out of determinism . We are self-constructing organisms, and in order to understand this we need a picture of ourselves as open to all the forces in the universe up to infinity.
In contrast ROBERT LANZA gave a highly optimistic survey of the success of cloning techniques and genetic engineering. Dolly the sheep did not age prematurely. . Cloning offers the possibility of resuscitating extinct species and repairing damaged human organs. However stem cells can be cultured from any cells in the body to from new organs., and this by-passes many of the medical arguments for human cloning . In the discussion that followed he admitted that much research by pharmaceutical companies was profit driven, and that xeno transplants were potentially dangerous. Such research has to be hedged around with the strictest safeguards. He acknowledged all the moral dilemmas involved in cloning and genetic manipulation, but he asked the audience who amongst them would refuse a genetically engineered transplant, if it was their only chance of escaping from a terminal illness. No one rose to the challenge.
As a qualified doctor who was also a Mohawk Indian, JOE JACOBS offered another perspective. Traditional ethnic Indian medicine was concerned to heal , not merely to cure, and healing involved the total relationship with the rest of the person, the community and the environment. This holistic approach was a reminder of the complexity of existence, whereas Western medicine was highly effective along one thin slice of reality.
KIM JOBST continued the same theme. Medicine faces us with the issue of what we really are. Disease is a problem of meaning, and is caused by imbalance. To understand that imbalance we need a vertical insight into man as well as a horizontal one. JAMES HURTAK continued the denunciation of the limits and dangers of the present trends in Western medicine. When we transfer genes from fish to potatoes we are short circuiting 4 billion years of evolution and playing God. Human cloning would deny individuals the right to an open future and could genetically unbalance the whole race. Genetic manipulation requires moral restraints, so that we need a profound openness to the spiritual dimension. Noetic knowledge demands that we proceed slowly.
JOHN KERR reminded the audience of the need for a balanced perspective. 'Natural' does not equal 'good'. 'Ethnic' does not automatically equal 'wise'. Spiritually high sounding medicine based on the subtle bodies did not cure malaria or a high infant mortality due to dysentery. He warned against anti-intellectualism and 'esoteric medicine for obese pets'.
In the discussion that followed the speakers were challenged with a series of medical dilemmas: 'how shall the genetic inheritance of mankind be preserved', 'what were the ethics of a genetically engineered baby with three parents', 'what was to be done with the epidemic of AIDS sweeping Africa?' The panel were unanimous in declaring that there were no tabloid headline answers to these questions. They called for a wiser and more spiritual vision of what a human being is, but declared that scientific experts should not pretend they have the authority to lay down moral rules. These are a matter for society as a whole. Science can contribute to a moral consensus, not impose it. According to one's perspective this was either a timorous evasion of difficult issues, or a wise acknowledgement of the limits of science.
Max Payne is Chair of the Trustees of the Network and a former lecturer in philosophy
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